In the News (Fri 9 Dec 16)

Geoffrey Chaucer began writing The CanterburyTales sometime around 1387 A.D.; the uncompleted manuscript was published in 1400, the year he died.

In the same way that The CanterburyTales gives modern readers a sense of the language at the time, the book also gives a rich, intricate tapestry of medieval social life, combining elements of all classes, from nobles to workers, from priests and nuns to drunkards and thieves.

Collections of stories were common in Chaucer’s time, and some still exist today, but the genius of The CanterburyTales is that the individual stories are presented in a continuing narrative, showing how all of the various pieces of life connect to one another.

Chaucer's Tales were not designed for sluggish meditation, but to be read aloud in an engaging manner, which is what makes this translation an ideal buy for those who wish to experience the Tales for their original charm.

The CanterburyTales are not to be read as a lesson in living modern life; they are based on a set of values that do not apply to the society we live in.

Their tales, as well as being compelling in their own right, are demonstrative of how the characters operate within the constraints of their society, not of how we should operate.

The Monk is due to tell the next tale, but the drunken Miller skips the queue and tells his story concerning a stupid Carpenter.

The host is well pleased at the standard of their tales, although he seems to have forgotten about the Monk, so he turns to the Parson to tell his story.

The Prioress tells her story, which seems to calm everybody down, and then it is the turn of the Narrator to tell his story, but Chaucer’s tale about Sir Topas is not well received, as many Pilgrims are tired of rhyme, and request Chaucer tells his story in prose.

We have published a tour programme to Lapland for the last 23 years and currently most of our reservations staff have been to Lapland and are therefore able to share personal knowledge on our programme.

A visit to Lapland should prove to be an exciting and emotional experience and CanterburyTales Ireland wishes to ensure these special memories remain with you for time immemorial.

All payments made to Canterbury are protected as we hold Irish Tour Operators Licence T096.

Invited to pause from their pilgrimage travels to sermonize on "moralite" and "communitas," pervasive themes that underlie 'The CanterburyTales', the tale-tellers included the Knight, Pardoner, Miller, Reeve, Nun's Priest and the ever-popular Wife of Bath.

The opening sequence of the performance presents a Chaucer look-alike as he attempts to relate his tales in a most archaic tongue but is readily deposed by the central narrator, played by Barry Woolhead, who overturns the middle-English idiom into a modern one.

The spinning of the wheel to determine which tale will be told next becomes a tool by which to incorporate a contemporary audience into an archaic and distant English tome, via their participation, hence meta-dramatically transforming the audience into fellow pilgrim-travellers.

The Parson's Tale, as a sermon on penance, is a fitting conclusion to this multi-valenced journey, the only possible way to achieve the "Celestial City" that Canterbury represents.

Presents the CanterburyTales as an ongoing drama among the pilgrims, considering General Prologue, the tales, and especially the links among the tales as scenes or acts.

Through genre and style, individual tales characterize their tellers and "depict the world as these people see and understand it." Through juxtaposition, diversity, and the recurrence of theme, Chaucer makes evident the comic and moral limitations of any one point of view.

Chaucer’s political sentiments are unclear, for although The CanterburyTales documents the various social tensions in the manner of the popular genre of estates satire, the narrator refrains from making overt political statements, and what he does say is in no way thought to represent Chaucer’s own sentiments.

The CanterburyTales is written in Middle English, which bears a close visual resemblance to the English written and spoken today.

Students often read The CanterburyTales in its original language, not only because of the similarity between Chaucer’s Middle English and our own, but because the beauty and humor of the poetry—all of its internal and external rhymes, and the sounds it produces—would be lost in translation.

Chaucer wove his tales about a group of fourteenth century pilgrims on their way to the shrine of the murdered archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

There are many pilgrims routes to Canterbury, and Chaucer set his tales about the way from London through Kent to the cathedral city.

Unfortunately for us, despite living to sixty, his royal duties were such that he only managed to complete twenty-four tales out of the 120 he had planned and he never got his pilgrims to the shrine of St Thomas.

www.canterbury.co.uk /cgi-bin/buildpage.pl?mysql=473 (669 words)

"The Canterbury Tales" (1998)(Site not responding. Last check: )

The format is the same - three tales are framed by the journey of a ragbag group of pilgrims, this time on their way back from Canterbury, where they prayed at the shrine of the martyr Thomas a Becket.

The animation of this tale is truly sublime, otherworldly, evincing a genuine magic, the bright, bleached primary colours creating a cool, Oriental atmosphere combining the magical and expressive, the watercolour texture achieving an emotional limpidity.

And yet the film does not end with this wholeness, but with the final tale, which is actually two tales, those of the Reeve and the Miller, which interrupt each other with increasing speed and violence, until the authority of the single narrator is broken, and the Babel of stories and voices spills open.

Chaucer’s most famous work, the CanterburyTales (written in the late 1380s), is a collection of stories of various kinds derived mainly from Italian and other European sources drawn together by the notion of a pilgrimage.

Usually the tales are popular or well known stories to which Chaucer adds or removes details to suit his purpose.

The language is very different to our own in the sense that it has more French roots that English has now lost so it is advisable to think of the lines as being spoken with a French accent at the end of words and an Anglo-Saxon grit in their middles.

www.bibliomania.com /0/2/14/24 (333 words)

Welcome to Canterbury(Site not responding. Last check: )

Canterbury, England's most famous cathedral city of Geoffrey Chaucer's CanterburyTales and now a UNESCO world heritage site sits on the River Stour in one of the most attractive corners of rural Kent.

The Norman cathedral still dominates the skyline as you approach the city, giving 21st century visitors the same sense of awe as their medieval counterparts.

Today Canterbury still welcomes visitors from all four corners of the globe and has, with its many ancient buildings, shops, bars and restaurants, retained both an old world charm and a cosmopolitan vitality.

It is fitting that he tells the first story of the Tales, almost as an epilogue to an era instead of a prologue to Chaucer’s stories.

For example, in the Reeve’s Tale, the Character of the Miller tries to rob the two students of their grain, but they get the best of him by sleeping with his wife and teenaged daughter.

The stories range from ones that empower the wives, like the Wife of Bath’s Tale, and at the other spectrum, the Scholar’s tale, where the wife endures patiently and happily sadistic griefs that her husband tests her with, such as pretending to kill their children and pretending to divorce her.

Correction/Clarification: (Published April 18, 2001) A 602-year-old manuscript of Chaucer's "CanterburyTales" acquired by the University of Pittsburgh contains an illustration that is probably the earliest image of the author -- not the only image, as asserted by a caption accompanying our photograph of the manuscript in Tuesday's editions.

While 14th-century clerics preferred Latin and bureaucrats conversed in French, the narrative poet wrote his "CanterburyTales" in Middle English, a language used by peasants who slopped hogs.

Now the University of Pittsburgh has acquired a copy of that 602-year-old manuscript, which is one of the most valuable literary texts in the world.

The CanterburyTales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century (two of them in prose, the rest in verse).

The tales, some of which are originals and others not, are contained inside a frame tale and told by a group of pilgrims on their way from Southwark to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

From the heroic romance of "The Knight's Tale" to the low farce embodied in the stories of the Miller, the Reeve, and the Merchant, Chaucer treated such universal subjects as love, sex, and death in poetry that is simultaneously witty, insightful, and poignant.

The tales are linked by narrative exchanges and each tale is presented in the manner and style of the character providing the story.

I remember slogging through The CanterburyTales in Middle English when I was in high school and although the language is beautiful, having to take time to decipher it all did diminish somewhat the enjoyment of a terrific collection of stories.

The Host of the Tabard proposes that the pilgrims pass the time on the journey by telling stories; he offers to accompany the group, judge the best story, and award the winner a meal, paid by all, when the group returns to his inn.

The pilgrims agree and begin telling tales, each of which reflects the interests and personality of the teller.

In the sampling of tales presented in Literature Connections, the Knight recounts a tale of chivalry; the Nun's Priest and the Pardoner tell cautionary tales; the Summoner tells a ribald tale; and the Wife of Bath, the Clerk, and the Franklin tell romantic tales of love and marriage.